Literature/writing

'The Virgin Spring' and 'The Seventh Seal': a Girardian reading

Article Abstract:

The anthropologist Rene Girard's view of the sacred provides a framework for interpreting Ingmar Bergman's films 'The Virgin Spring' and 'The Seventh Seal'. For Girard, man manages his capacity for violence by deflecting his energies onto a surrogate or scapegoat figure upon which all religions are based. Once this scapegoat dies, people are at peace and the scapegoat becomes a magical benefactor and the group's savior. The only flaw in this approach is that it prevents humanity from grasping the effect of its own violence. Bergman's two above-mentioned films can be interpreted with these ideas in mind.

Granville Barker's production of 'The Winter's Tale'(1912)

Article Abstract:

Harley Granville-Barker's 1912 production of William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale' emphasized the rhythms of speech and action in style partly dependant on two contemporary directors, William Poel and Edward Gordon Craig. From Craig, Barker drew the use of visual enactment of a play's themes. Poel regarded the spoken text as the most crucial element, so Barker probably used Shakespeare's complete text. Barker's 'The Winter's Tale' impressed its audience with a spirit of freshness and vitality.

Spring and winter in 'Love's Labor Lost': an iconographic reconstruction

Article Abstract:

No references remain of how the figures of Spring and Winter were portrayed in William Shakespeare's play 'Love's Labor Lost.' Depictions of these two seasons in the playwright's time showed them variously as men or women. The most common depictions of Spring are of a naked woman distributing abundance against an outdoor setting. Meanwhile, Winter was shown as an old man weighed down by the wisdom and weariness and fully clothed in a fur-trimmed coat.